Where Even Time Freezes
by LavaReefAct4
Summary: After Master Albert barely survives the destruction of Ouroboros, a resurrected Chronoforce gives him the opportunity to reverse time and get a second chance to reset the world. However, when the Time Bomb malfunctions and history is altered, Albert is faced with a dilemma: help the Hunters save the world, or perish at his own hands. Updated at irregular intervals.
1. Prologue

Master Albert, the greatest scientist in the entire world, awoke on a floating slab of metal.

It seemed as if a thousand years had passed since he was collapsed at the feet of his Reploid "son" and mortal enemy Grey, knowing beyond any doubt that the next time he closed his eyes, they would never open again. If Grey didn't kill him—though he probably wouldn't, being the spineless defective he was—the explosion of the Biometal fragment he used in the final battle with Grey almost certainly would.

Ah, yes, the Biometal—Model W, to be specific. The monstrously powerful superweapon Albert had created to wipe Earth's surface clean so that it could be born anew was now nothing more than scrap metal strewn amongst the ruins of Ouroboros, Albert's flying battle station, bobbing on the surface of the sea like a garbage patch.

The calming effect of the serene blue sky over Albert's head and the peaceful water surrounding the ten-foot-across piece of Ouroboros on which he sat was the only thing keeping Albert from exploding with rage. The plan to reset the world that he had been laboring over for hundreds of years had been shattered in mere minutes just as it was finally coming to fruition. And here he was, stranded in the middle of the ocean with no land in sight, doomed to die a slow and painful death from hunger and thirst while the undead civilization of oblivious fools around him celebrated. What unbelievable injustice!

_Calm yourself!_ he snapped to his own emotions. _The struggle is not over. There may still be a way to topple Legion and restore balance to the world._ Calling on the power of his cybernetically enhanced body, Albert initiated the transformation sequence that would have ordinarily loaded the data and abilities of Queenbee the Hymenopteroid into his system, allowing him to utilize her powers of flight. Unfortunately, the result was nothing but an error message on the HUD overlaying his vision.

_With the destruction of Model W's databanks, all of my A-Trans data was lost_, Albert realized. _My ability to copy new data is still intact, but without any of the extra abilities I've acquired over the years, all I have is my own powerless form, and it's hardly equipped to traverse hundreds of miles of open ocean. Is there anything left for me to do but sit here and rot?_

Just as Albert was about to accept his fate and power off his A-Trans system permanently, the water around twenty feet to his left began to bubble. Startled by this sudden disturbance, Albert turned to look, only to see the sleek blue body of Chronoforce the Xiphosuroid emerge from the surface of the water.

"Chronoforce!" Albert called. "My scans indicated that you were destroyed by Grey a few minutes before Ouroboros' explosion! How did you survive?"

Chronoforce chuckled. "I'm not too sure myself, but if I had to guess, I'd say Model W finished its automatic reconstruction of my body just before it was destroyed. I suppose the other Pseudoroids weren't revived in time, though. I can't even find their smoldering remains down there."

"So that's why you took so long to surface," Albert responded. "Even so, try not to keep me waiting too long next time."

"There won't be any delays in the future, sir," Chronoforce answered, his obedience programming kicking in. He then paused for a second, unsure of how to continue. "Listen, I don't have much energy left in my batteries. Without Model W to send me power remotely, it won't be long before my AI freezes and I shut down entirely. I could swim you to shore with my remaining energy, but you'd still be without food or water, not to mention a wanted criminal throughout the world."

"Unless you have any other suggestions," Albert said, "I'm willing to take what I can get."

"There is another option that I've been considering," Chronoforce replied, "but it's very risky. As you know, the negative temporal effect my Time Bomb has on the area around me has no magnitude limit, so if I ramp up the energy input enough, I may be able to send us back in time to a point when Model W still existed, giving you an opportunity for a do-over of sorts."

"Intriguing," Albert said. "Time paradoxes were proven to be contradictory to the nature of the universe centuries ago by physicists, however, so what exactly is the risk?"

"I've only used this time reversal technique twice before, once during each of my battles with Grey, so I have almost no experience with it," Chronoforce responded. "Therefore, I don't know how much energy is necessary to send us back a given amount of time. I could overshoot it and land us in the days of Neo Arcadia, or waste all of my remaining power turning the clock back five minutes. It's nothing but random chance where and when we'll end up."

Albert considered this for a minute, sighed, and finally said, "Very well. If I find myself unable to change my fate, so be it. My future is even bleaker if I decline, or even if I re-copy your high-speed swimming abilities." Standing up, careful not to capsize the fragment of Ouroboros on which he rested, he ordered Chronoforce, "Use the data you've acquired from your usage of this ability so far to estimate how much energy is necessary to reverse time by 24 hours. Assume the duration of the time reversal state is a linear function of the energy input. When you have the result, activate your Time Bomb. Your reserve power is draining by the second, so we have no time to waste."

Chronoforce floated unresponsive in the water for a moment, performing the necessary calculations, and then said, "Energy input estimation complete. Time reversal should require precisely 1.21 gi—uh, 2.47 terawatts." Noticing Albert's unamused expression, he quickly added, "Excuse me, sir, but the reference was unavoidable."

"No matter," Albert dismissed. "Activate the Time Bomb! I have a world to reset."

And with that, they vanished.


	2. An Unexpected Development

Master Albert, the greatest scientist in the entire world, wanted to vomit.

As Chronoforce's ice tail spun faster and faster around the axis of the domelike structure that made up most of his body, the image of the world around him and Albert distorted dramatically in a very nauseating manner. Besides the fact that they were rapidly shifting positions and orientations in the space-time continuum as the temporal reversal effect generated by the Time Bomb increased in magnitude, the light that was entering Albert's bionic eyes itself was moving in reverse, making it difficult for his easily confused human brain to process what was going on around him. Albert managed to remain his usual calm composure with some effort, however, for fear of embarrassing himself if nothing else.

_That's twice in the past fifteen minutes I've had to struggle to keep myself from breaking down_, Albert noted. _I hope I haven't gone soft from the destruction of Ouroboros and Model W._

"We're getting close," Chronoforce said, "assuming I didn't have a brain freeze while doing those calculations. 2.31 of 2.47 terawatts have been exhausted. Good thing, too, since even I'm getting a bit of vertigo."

"Excellent," Albert responded. "See if you can transport us into the Undersea Volcano base when we exit the time warp. I want to have the most direct access to Model W possible for my second attempt."

"Will do. You planning on going all-out Mega Man on Grey as soon as you can, or what?"

"I believe the presence of Ouroboros is necessary for me to achieve that form, but more direct intervention wouldn't hurt, I suppose. Perhaps I'll have a little talk with Rospark on battle strategy as well. We can't have him randomly dropping off poles when he—"

"Sorry to interrupt, sir," Chronoforce interjected, "but 2.46 terawatts have been exhausted. We should be arriving at the Undersea Volcano right about… now." As he spoke, his ice tail began to rotate slower and continued decelerating until the negative temporal effect was weak enough to yield to normal time flow and Albert's surroundings started to become comprehensible again. He almost wished they hadn't, however, considering what he was beginning to see.

"Chronoforce, it appears your calculations were… incorrect," Albert said, "as this is clearly not the Undersea Volcano… unless it was far better upholstered 24 hours ago and that fact somehow slipped my mind." His voice was dripping with irritated sarcasm.

"Don't forget it was you who made me assume that time reversal as a function of energy input was linear," Chronoforce rebutted. "If your plans are now screwed up even more than before, don't blame me."

Albert and Chronoforce found themselves materializing in what appeared to be a dimly lit bedroom with a desk lamp in the corner as the only active source of light. The room was dominated by a single queen-size bed with most of the pillows haphazardly tossed over the sides, and various items of clothing were strewn around the floor. One wall was taken up entirely by a large glass window, common in 26th-century apartments, and while the window was mostly hidden from view by a pair of curtains, Albert could make out the nighttime skyline of Area D through it.

The most significant feature of the room, however, was the pair of humans, one man and one woman, that were currently occupying the bed. They were clutching each other very tightly and seemed completely oblivious to their surroundings, their eyes locked on each other as they each caressed their partner's face and body. Speaking of their bodies, the portions of them that were unobscured by the sheets were completely devoid of clothing. It wasn't exactly difficult for either Albert or Chronoforce to figure out why.

"Of all the times and places where I could have exited the temporal reversal, it had to be here," Albert growled softly to himself. "How am I going to escape undetected?"

"Forget about you, what's going to happen to me?" Chronoforce retorted, a little too loudly for his own good. "I'm not exactly efficient at making my way around this far from water."

"Quiet!" Albert hissed, but it was too late. The woman had already noticed the time travelers' presence and forcefully removed herself from the man's grasp, sitting directly upright with a furious expression on her face.

"Honey, what's wrong?" the man asked, sitting up as well and following her line of sight to where Albert and Chronoforce stood. "What the hell?" he immediately said, narrowing his eyes. "How'd they get in—"

"Alright, what do you pervs think you're doing?" the woman barked, throwing on one of the shirts lying on the floor without checking to see if it was hers (it wasn't, which made it difficult for Albert to take her seriously). "Standing here and watching us like this? Who are you idiots anyway?" Turning to her partner, a thin, light-skinned thirty-something with spiky black hair and bright green eyes, she chided, "See, I told you all Mutos Reploids were trouble. It's not racism, it's just a fact. After all, they make up one half of this creep squad we have on our hands now."

"Sounds like she hasn't heard of Pseudoroids before," Chronoforce quietly observed. "Ah, well. It's an easy mistake to make for anyone not in the know about the Game of Destiny."

"Calm down, Serre," the man said. "I don't like the looks of this any more than you do, but maybe there's a rational explanation for it."

"Dammit, Cendres, can't you ever just trust your instincts?" Serre snapped. A moment later, the anger left her facial features and she sighed. "I'm sorry. It's just that I hate being spied on like this. Let's hear them out." She was around the same age as Cendres, but considerably more muscular than him, with bluish-grey eyes, an unusually sharp nose, and shoulder-length wavy brown hair.

"I apologize for interrupting your… alone time," Albert said. "I am Dr. Malin Grauss of the Cossack Institute of Technology in Area Q, and this is my partner, Temporal Xiphosura. We have been experimenting with long-range transerver technology that allows people and goods to be teleported around without another transerver at the destination. We were supposed to be beamed to another lab near the Serpent Tower just now, but instead we ended up here. Again, we're sorry for the inconvenience. Aren't we, Xiphosura?" He nodded to Chronoforce.

Chronoforce chuckled. "Indeed we are."

Cendres considered this for a second or two. "I… accept your apology," he decided. "As a transerver scientist myself, however, I have to point out that you should have sent a remote probe to scout out the destination before transporting yourselves if the technology is still in its testing phase. After all, you could teleport yourself into a Maverick warzone or even a solid wall if you aren't careful, and either way it would be very messy."

_I'm surprised one as seemingly intelligent as him bought a story like that so quickly_, Albert mused. _On the other hand, at least we have a second attempt at arriving at our original destination now that Chronoforce can draw power from Model W. If that couple is who I suspect they are, however..._ "I appreciate your advice," he said out loud, "and I'll be sure to ignore my impatience to get home after long work days in the future. We'll—urmph!—be leaving now—agh!—I suppose," he added while attempting to lift Chronoforce's immobile body at the same time, his biomechanical muscles straining under the weight.

"Hey, watch it," Chronoforce complained. "You wouldn't want to get my hull smeared with their love juice, would you?"

"I couldn't care less about your hull," Albert admitted, "as long as it can still protect your hydrogen reactor." Dragging Chronoforce out of the bedroom, through the apartment's living room, and out of the door, he shook his head as if to clear it of everything he'd just seen.

"Try not to make that mistake again," Serre grumbled loud enough for Albert and Chronoforce to hear from the stairwell, "'cause neither me nor my husband is going to let it slide a second time. Isn't that right, Cendres?"

"Sure, honey, whatever you say," Cendres responded.

Without warning, Albert dropped Chronoforce on the landing with a loud _thunk_, shut the door of the apartment, stood there for a minute, and then began to smile a smile bursting with evil elation, having finally realized the implications of what he and Chronoforce had just done… or rather _un_done.

"Tell me, Chronoforce, do you know who those two humans were?" Albert rhetorically asked, excitement in his tone.

"First of all, you're lucky I'm not as sensitive to pain as you organics," Chronoforce said, "or my obedience programming would be the only thing making me want to help you escape this time period. As for your question, I haven't the foggiest."

"Those humans… were Serre and Cendres Essorman."

"Essorman… That name does ring a bell. You haven't mentioned it before, have you?"

"Indeed I have. If the timeline had continued uninterrupted, they would have been the parents of Aile Essorman, Chosen One for Biometal Model X."

"Would have been? Are you saying…"

"The data I'm receiving from this time period's Model W indicates that the current date is August 12, 25XX, approximately 9 months before Aile's birthdate according to my own data on the Chosen Ones that I have selected. Considering what Serre and Cendres were… engaging in… when we arrived, I find it reasonable to assume that this would have been the evening of Aile's conception."

"But we interrupted it, didn't we?" Chronoforce added, and then cackled his trademark cackle. "Now I see what you're getting at."

"Without an individual capable of harnessing the power of Model X on their side," Albert gloated, "the Guardians will have no hope of overpowering the Maverick forces. My old scapegoat Serpent will continue to operate his corporate empire into the present, and I will remain behind the scenes, pulling Serpent's strings, promising the arrogant fool the power of a god as long as he completes whatever task I require of him, for years to come. Even Grey, my finest creation, won't stand a chance against our combined forces! The corrupt civilization built around Legion's totalitarian regime will crumble at last!"

"Don't get carried away just yet, sir," Chronoforce advised. "We don't even know for sure if Aile was going to be conceived that night."

"Use the information you gathered from our temporal reversal to come up with a second equation for determining destination time based on Time Bomb energy input. A glorious new world awaits us upon our return to the present."

"But… whatever you say, sir," Chronoforce grumbled. "Calculating exponential increase rate now."

"See if you can apply a negative magnitude to the time reversal effect in order to send me forward in time to the point of my original departure. I may be nearly 300 years old already, but I'm not patient enough to wait another 18 to watch such an intriguing development play out naturally. It's time to free the world from the clutches of the likes of Thomas and Mikhail… permanently."

"The new temporal reversal equation has been generated," Chronoforce declared. "Let's see how this world without Aile will hold up… if it can." His ice tail began to rotate orders of magnitude faster than before, blurring him and Albert from view until they were once again rendered invisible and swept away in the vast currents of time.


	3. Repercussions

"Sorry to keep you waiting," Cendres Essorman said as he swung open the door of his apartment, "but I was really being kept busy over at the lab. I swear, some of the extra checks and calculations my boss makes me do aren't even necessary, they're just to torture me for being a few minutes late once every month or so."

"Yeah, I kind of got the impression that your boss was a complete prick," Serre replied from over on the couch, "from the 20,000 times you've complained about him before. Someone needs to either get him to take anger management classes or inject raw dopamine into him every morning."

"He's actually a Reploid," Cendres responded as he hung his coat up and put his briefcase on the coffee table, "so I don't think the second option would work very well, unless you were trying to fry his circuits instead of cheer him up."

"This is one of those times when I wish my privileges as a Guardian extended to temper policing," Serre joked. "I know, the Mavericks we're supposed to be protecting everyone from won't care at all, but how many outbreaks have there been in the last month? Two? Three?"

"You do seem to spend more time worrying about speed limits and firearm regulations, it's true." Cendres flopped down on the sofa next to his wife and yawned. "I'm getting tired. Think we should head off to bed soon?"

"Oh, I think we have a couple of things left to take care of," Serre answered, winking at Cendres, "especially since we were so rudely interrupted yesterday night." She began to inch closer to him. "Besides, tomorrow's your day off. You can sleep as late as your heart desires."

Cendres chuckled. "I suppose you have a point there," he said, tentatively removing his shirt.

"Now," Serre purred as she took hers off as well, "where were we?"

* * *

"I hope you're almost done fixing that conduit, Essorman," a voice from behind Cendres threatened, "for your own sake. After all, you have a family to support, and I'd hate for you to have your salary reduced."

"It'll be ready in a second, Dr. Meurt," Cendres assured. True to his word, about one second later he crawled out from underneath the mostly completed transerver station, grunting, and stood up next to the man in charge of the transerver lab in which he worked.

"I believe we're ready to send our first humanoid test subject through the channel," Dr. Meurt stated. "You're as good a candidate as any, Essorman. Step on in and, if all goes well, you'll have the honor of being the first sentient being since the Neo Arcadian era to be transported directly onto a moving vehicle. If all doesn't go well… well, I suppose you would prefer not to think about that."

"Will do, sir," Cendres grumbled as he stepped onto the transerver pad. _Man, it's late_, he thought to himself. _I hope this'll go quickly enough for me to be home by 10:00… wait. Something about this situation seems familiar to me…_

"Coordinates set for the receiving station in the Meurt Labs van," Dr. Meurt announced, "which is currently heading northward along Highway 3L. Let's see if we can reassemble a shape as complex as a human being's at 60 miles per hour."

"Excuse me, Dr. Meurt," Cendres said, remembering his bizarre encounter with the human scientist and the Mutos Reploid nearly four years ago, "but wouldn't it be wise to send a humanoid test probe through first, just to make sure the link is working correctly?" _I almost forgot my own advice there, didn't I? How hypocritical of me._

"Getting nervous, are we?" questioned Dr. Meurt. "I'd hate to have a fatal accident on my company's record, though, so I might as well send a probe. Good catch there, Essorman." Meurt walked over to a nearby closet and removed a human-shaped sensor-outfitted dummy from it, gesturing at Cendres to step off of the transerver pad. After the dummy was positioned correctly, Cendres entered a line of code into the laptop that was currently operating the transerver, and the dummy vanished.

"This is the Meurt Labs van operator," said a voice from the laptop's voice message function a few seconds later. "There appears to have been an error with the coordinates the van transerver received. They were shifted about ten feet to the left, so the probe you sent through materialized directly in the path of the oncoming traffic. I don't think we'll be able to recover it. Van out."

"I bet you're glad that wasn't you," Dr. Meurt commented. "Let me see what the problem is." Stepping up to the laptop, Meurt scrolled through the teleportation program code for about thirty seconds before announcing, "It appears that the coordinate data package's maximum size was set to 8 petabytes when approximately 9.35 were required, distorting the data a bit on the receiving end. I believe you were in charge of setting that value, Essorman, but because you caught it in time, I won't penalize you. Consider it a thank-you gift for not ruining my reputation."

"You're… you're welcome, sir," Cendres responded. "Thank you for taking this so well."

"Reploids need sleep too, you know," Dr. Meurt replied, "and I'm not sure I have the energy to lecture you for any significant length of time. As of now, Meurt Labs is officially closed for the night. Go on, get out." He made a flicking gesture with his hand.

"Thank you, Dr. Meurt," Cendres said, picking up his briefcase and exiting the lab, relieved that the long workday was finally at an end. _I'm glad I thought of that in time, or Serre would have to take care of little Vent all on her own for the next decade and a half. On top of her Guardian work, I'm not sure she could manage that, as stubborn as she is. Anyway, wherever that scientist and his partner are, I hope they're successful in whatever they're working on at the moment. They deserve it. After all, I might not be alive without them._

* * *

"Look, Mom, a swinging ship! Can I ride it? Please?" Vent pleaded.

"Of course you can, sweetie. Here, I'll ride with you," Serre answered. When Cendres shot her a questioning look, she said, "Children 8 and under aren't allowed on without a parent. I know you hoped things would be a little quieter, but I don't have much choice."

Cendres sighed. Serre was right, he wasn't really in the mood for action or excitement right now. Today was one of the rare opportunities he had to sleep in, but instead both he and his wife were half-dragged to the Area H amusement park by their son Vent, each deciding they would rather accompany the other than piddle around the house for most of the day with nothing to do. Having a 5-year-old kid to take care of was taxing enough, but the lack of sleep from all of the work regarding the new compact transerver design would make anyone reluctant to spend a lot of energy during the daytime. Lowering himself onto a bench and taking out his e-reader, Cendres was actually starting to get comfortable when he heard what was almost certainly an explosion over by the swinging ship. He immediately sprung up and ran over to the source of the blast, emergency alarms beginning to blare all around him.

"Vent? Serre? Are you okay?" he shouted, trying to locate his wife and son amongst the crowd of frightened visitors.

"We're over here," Serre yelled back, unstrapping herself and Vent from the seat of the now-stopped swinging ship. Part of the ride's rotation mechanism had been damaged, but the ship itself was thankfully intact, at least at the moment.

"W-What's going on, Mom?" Vent asked. "What was that loud noise?"

"That's actually a good question," Cendres said as he ran up to the rest of his family. "What could have…" And then he saw them.

Mavericks.

Standing a good three inches taller than most humans, their deadly arm cannons gleaming in the midday sun, their crimson visors blazing with an insatiable hardwired need to destroy, the several dozen malevolent machines were blasting their way through the outer sections of the park before Cendres' eyes—and they were closing in rapidly. _So much for relative peace and quiet_, Cendres thought to himself. And then, like any sensible person would do, he ran.

"C'mon, Vent, let's get out of here," Serre urged, taking Vent's hand and rushing away from the approaching Maverick horde with him in tow, struggling to keep up with her.

"But isn't your job to protect people from those things?" questioned Vent. "Why are _you_ running away?"

"I might be able to take down a few of them in an emergency," Serre replied, "but there are so many that I don't think even a Guardian would have much of a chance without a weapon."

As rapidly as the crowd surged towards the exit of the park, they were no match for the superhuman speed and mechanical efficiency of the Mavericks. It wasn't long before the distance between the two groups was small enough for the Mavericks to open fire with their plasma guns. Several people dropped to the ground within the first few seconds of bombardment.

_I hope the Slither Inc. security force arrives soon_, Cendres thought, _or we'll all be done for. Right now, though, I should probably regroup with Serre and Vent. Staying separated and confused would be one of the worst mistakes we could make in this situation._

The fleeing visitors who made it to the gate of the park first soon discovered that the automatic opening mechanism was damaged in the attack and no amount of force they could muster would get the job done manually. The only option was to wait for someone from the outside to blast it open. Eventually, the entire crowd was cornered near the gate as the Mavericks continued to close in.

"Well, Vent," Serre said, "it looks like you were right. I don't really have a choice but to try and hold them off until help arrives." Dodging a plasma bullet aimed at her midsection, she dashed over to the nearest Maverick, sweep-kicked its legs out from under it, wrested its cannon off of its arm, and shot it in the head at point-blank range with it. "That was awfully satisfying," she remarked.

"Wow," was all Vent could say.

"Don't be so impressed just yet," Serre told him. "It'll be even more amazing if we actually—agh!" Barely avoiding getting a faceful of superheated gas, she fell back to where most of the crowd stood and began firing away with the defeated Maverick's arm cannon, although she knew its energy supply wouldn't last long now that it couldn't draw power from its original wielder.

"Vent," Cendres panted as he ran up to his son, "is everything okay? Where's your mom?"

"I'm fine," Vent answered, "and Mom is over there shooting up the bad robots. How are we gonna get out of here?"

Cendres looked over at where Serre was standing and firing at the Mavericks with the detached arm cannon. She had managed to render a few of them unable to fight, but there were enough remaining ones that it didn't matter very much. What did matter, however, was that she was apparently seen as enough of a threat by the Mavericks that they focused most of their attention on taking her down, neglecting the rest of the crowd. With all of the fire directed at her, though, it was only a matter of time before she was hit. If the security force didn't come and blast through the locked gate before that happened, the Mavericks would be free to continue their massacre of the visitors.

"I'm not sure we can do much but wait for someone to open that door from the outside," Cendres said to Vent. "I know this is scary for you, and I'm scared too, but don't worry. We'll make it out okay."

"I hope so," Vent responded, worry evident on his face.

Unfortunately, any chance the surviving visitors had of all making it out alive was crushed when a massive, vaguely humanoid shape leapt out of the shadows cast by the various attractions and dashed into the fray, hollering excitedly in a voice that was half speech and half primitive howling and swinging its massive metallic arms at humans, Reploids, and Mavericks alike.

"Ook! Ook! Get out of my way, ya standard-model weaklings! These kills are mine!" the creature shouted, now clearly visible and revealed to be a giant mechanical ape. The ordinary Mavericks didn't seem to retaliate against the ape and his disregard for their safety, indicating that he was considered a Maverick himself.

"What is that thing?!" someone in the crowd shrieked.

Ignoring the outspoken visitor, the ape continued smashing his way through the ranks of Mavericks and tossing humans and Reploids aside like they were oversized toys. Serre was almost grateful that he was doing so much of her work for her until he began advancing toward her on all fours, his arms causing slight tremors every time they made contact with the ground. She raised her makeshift cannon, unsure whether fight, flight, or reason was the least terrible option.

"And lookie what we have here," the ape snickered. "A human who thinks she can mount a defense against a Maverick Mutos Reploid like me! That's a new one."

"Who are you?" Serre demanded. "Lower your… arms… or I'll be forced to open fire!"

"An off-duty Guardian, huh?" the ape chuckled. "I can tell by how you think spewing protocol at me makes you look tough. Alright, I'll give you my name, if you insist. I'm the one and only Purprill, the wildest Maverick you'll ever see… and the last one, for that matter." With that, Purprill began to pick up speed, swiping at Serre with the palm of his massive hand. Serre dodged to the left and fired at Purprill's elbow joint, causing him to wince in pain. He shook it off quickly, however, and continued to give chase.

Pushing through the panicking crowd to get a better view of what was going on, Cendres was becoming increasingly worried. _There's just no way she'll be able to take down something like that alone_, he realized. _There just isn't_. If the situation became dire enough, Cendres decided, he was prepared to take action at any cost.

Sure enough, it wasn't long before Purprill got in swiping range again and caught Serre by surprise, grabbing her by the abdomen and squeezing so hard Serre was sure she heard a _crack_ somewhere in there.

"I could just throw you against that gate and knock the wind out of you permanently," Purprill considered, "but I enjoy a creative kill every now and then. Man, this beats repairing power lines for Slither Inc. all day!"

"Let go of her!" Cendres yelled as he dashed out of the crowd and up to Purprill, taking hold of the Maverick primate's thumb and using all of his strength to try and release Serre from its grasp. _This isn't like me at all_, he noted somewhere in the back of his mind. _On the other hand, if caring enough about my wife to do something like this isn't who I am, I can't really respect myself._ Luckily, even the weight of Cendres' relatively light frame was enough to overpower Purprill's motors for a split second, giving Serre the opportunity to drop out of Purprill's palm and dodge-roll to safety before he had a chance to close his fist again.

"Being heroic, are we?" Purprill mocked. "Well, let's make it a heroic _sacrifice_, then!" A single backhand swipe was enough to send Cendres flying a good twenty feet, the gate abruptly stopping his momentum and knocking him onto the ground, where he lay limp and unmoving.

"Cendres…!" Serre exclaimed, and turned towards an amused Purprill. "You monster! You're going to pay for this!" Arm cannon blazing, she charged towards the simian Reploid, her mind less on the weapon's power reserves than on peppering every inch of Purprill's hide with plasma burns.

"Oh, please. Don't tell me you…" Purprill's condescending comment was interrupted by the sound of an explosion on the other side of the gate, which shattered into bits of metal and plastic from the blast. Immediately, armored Reploids bearing the Slither Inc. security force logo on their helmets charged in and began mowing down standard-model Mavericks with their rapid-fire busters.

"All civilians, evacuate the area immediately! We've got it under control!" the leader of the security squad shouted. He had barely finished his sentence when visitors began pouring out of the ruptured gateway by the dozens. Serre quickly realized what was going on and dropped her cannon, running over to where Cendres lay. Purprill, having enough sense not to mess with the security force and their formidable firepower, scampered off into the distance with a scowl on his robotic features.

"Dad…?" Vent said, nudging Cendres' side with his open hand. "Dad, are you okay?"

"Hey, Vent…" Cendres coughed, staring weakly at his son. "Sorry, but I don't know if I'm going to make it through this one…"

Serre approached her semi-conscious husband and knelt down beside him, looking more concerned than she'd looked in years. "Cendres… why'd you have to do that? Did you really…"

"Yeah, I did really," Cendres answered. "Sorry I have to go out like this, but I didn't have much of a choice…"

"Oh no. You are not leaving me to raise this little pain in the neck all on my own," Serre rebutted while looking at Vent. "We'll get you to a hospital, they'll fix you up, and you'll be good as new in no time." The words sounded hollow even to her.

"It's too late for that…" Cendres sighed. "Serre, you've been a better wife, and a better friend, than I could've ever imagined…"

"Dad, please don't go away," Vent pleaded. "You're not gonna die. We'll save you… right, Mom?" Serre just closed her eyes and exhaled.

"And Vent…" Cendres continued. "Of all the possible children your mother and I might have had together, I know for sure that you are without equal… Be strong, okay? And please… don't let this happen… again…" He closed his eyes for the last time.

"No…" Vent gasped, his eyes welling with tears.

"I'm sorry, Vent," Serre said, "but we can't stay here right now. The security guys have to come in and make sure the Mavericks don't come back." She took him by the hand and began to walk him towards the open gate.

"I'll… I'll get you for this!" Vent shouted to the long-gone Mavericks, resisting his mother's pull on him. "Someday, I'll come back, and you'll be sorry!" Then, reluctantly, he turned towards the gate and followed Serre out of the ruined amusement park.

On the way out of the gate, they were stopped by the squad leader. "Excuse me, Mrs…"

"Essorman," Serre finished.

"Mrs. Essorman, I have just been informed—by Serpent himself, no less—that I am to escort you and your son to Legion Headquarters for a conference with Master Albert."

"One of the Sage Trinity wants to speak with us? But why?"

"To be honest, I'm not sure," the leader answered. "I just follow orders and hope my superiors know what they're doing. It's what I'm getting paid for, after all." Pointing down the forested path that Serre and Vent had taken to enter the park, he said, "The nearest transerver is this way, as I'm sure you know. Follow me, please." He strode off down the path, Serre and Vent in tow.

* * *

"Mr. Albert, someone's here to see you!" a voice from behind Albert called.

"He's a bit earlier than expected," Albert considered, turning away from his laptop, "but my project can wait. Escort him in, would you, Hedgeshock?"

"Yes, sir!" the Pseudoroid rodent replied enthusiastically, saluting with her plug-like metallic hand. She then scurried out of the door of Albert's roomy Legion office and returned a few seconds later with a young boy following nervously behind her.

"You… wanted to talk to me?" the boy asked.

"Vent Essorman, I presume?" Albert said. Without waiting for a confirmation, he continued, "Excellent. Hedgeshock, fetch the syringe."

"Will do," Hedgeshock responded, and dashed over to a cabinet in the corner of the office.

"Syringe? What syringe?" Vent said, his voice giving away the panic he felt. "What are you gonna do to me?" He approached Albert, still sitting calmly at his desk, as if to beg for an answer.

"It's none of your concern," Albert dismissed. "Just hold still and don't struggle. I want to get this over with as quickly as possible."

"Syringe is armed and ready!" Hedgeshock interjected, returning from the cabinet. "Just give the word and I'll do the injection."

"Don't inject me with anything!" Vent yelled, backing up against Albert's desk as Hedgeshock approached him. "Please, do something!" he begged Albert.

"Oh, quit whining," Albert ordered. "You're even worse than that blonde kid a few years ago."

"Shut up!" Vent screamed, pounding his fist on Albert's laptop's keyboard as his bottled-up anger was released. "My dad's dead and all you care about is sticking needles in me!"

"I've had about enough of this," Albert sighed. "Hedgeshock?"

"Come here, kid," Hedgeshock commanded, grabbing Vent's arm.

"You'll thank me in ten years or so," Albert said to Vent, "if that's any comfort to you… although I'd guess it isn't."

And with that, Hedgeshock inserted the syringe into a vein on Vent's wrist, and a maroon liquid began to flow in.

* * *

After seeing her husband die right in front of her eyes and almost getting crushed into oblivion by a giant Maverick ape, the cries of pain from behind the door of Master Albert's office weren't exactly improving Serre's mood as she sat anxiously in the waiting room. _What are they doing to Vent in there?_ she wondered. _Whatever it is, he better be alright after it's over. Sage Trinity member or not, I'm not going to let Albert get away with doing any permanent damage to my kid._

_Speaking of permanent_, she continued, _what's going to happen to us after this all gets sorted out? We're not going to be able to afford the rent for the apartment without Cendres, and even if we could, Vent would be unsupervised most of the time while I'm off working with the Guardians. There are a couple of open rooms on the Grand Nuage, but a military HQ isn't exactly the best place to raise a child… It seems like it's our only option, though. Man, do I wish I didn't have to do this, but…_

Serre shook her head subconsciously and then placed it in her hands, sighing. _There are a few other kids on that airship, aren't there?_ she reassured herself. _And I think one of the doctors is also a part-time tutor... Oh, who am I kidding? There are no good options here. All Vent and I can do is make the best of what we have._

* * *

"Ugh, you can't be serious," Albert moaned after Vent had left the room, sobbing from the syringe wound on his wrist.

"What's wrong, sir?" Hedgeshock asked, peering over Albert's shoulder at his laptop and craning her neck to compensate for her short stature.

"That little brat must have hit the F14 key and compiled the executable I was working on when he slammed the keyboard. There's no way to reverse the compilation process, so I can't recover the code."

"Code? What kind of code? Is it for Gr—"

"Keep your voice down!" Albert scolded. He dropped his voice to a whisper and continued, "It is imperative that the Grey project remain in absolute secrecy, lest it be shut down and Model W brought one step closer to falling into the hands of another Mega Man."

"Y-yes, sir," Hedgeshock sighed, clearly displeased with herself.

"You were correct, however, in that that executable was part of Grey's operating system," Albert explained. "Specifically, it would have served as the primary controller of his fight-or-flight response, a vital instinct to possess in combat situations, had it not been compiled prematurely."

"So is he just gonna have to go without it, then?"

"It depends on how effective his internal bugfixing system will be at repairing the damaged programming. I would replace the executable with the standard Reploid version, but that would leave Grey with much slower reflexes and difficulty with assessing danger levels. Therefore, I have no choice but to keep it as is if I want my backup plan to be a success, should it be necessary to implement."

* * *

_*Grey's fight-or-flight response. Assesses potential threats and determines the optimal course of action. Note: Do not disable scr_obj_identify() or scr_obj_assc() before running._

if scr_recieve_msg(combat_mode) = 1 then {

with(sys_sensory_memory) {other/sensoryData = inputFolder}

pot_threats = scr_search(sensoryData,filetype_obj,65535)

with(sys_int_log_calculator) {

if checkDef(other/pot_threats,65535,def_n_threat) = 1 then {

other/pot_threats/tconfirmed = 1

}

else {return end}

}

scr_narrow_cat(pot_threats,65535,tconfirmed = 1)

scr_obj_identify(pot_threats,655ew3q2sxqqqqqqqqqqq 


	4. Desperate Measures

Master Albert, the greatest scientist in the entire world, nearly fell backward into the sky.

Steadying himself and stepping away from the edge of the greenish-grey airship that he found himself standing on, he glanced from side to side to get a better sense of his surroundings. Among the things that he noticed were a relatively cloudless midday sky stretching overhead, Chronoforce lying on the deck of the airship and smirking slightly at his misfortune, and the fact that the airship was being chased by a massive fleet of shark-like Raider fighter jets.

"Before you start furiously scolding me for being way off _again_," Chronoforce advised, "you might be interested to know that Model W's internal clock says we arrived only around 48 hours before we were supposed to. At least I was closer this time, right?"

"A few more feet in the wrong direction and you would have done me in," Albert grumbled. "Now get us out of here before those filthy bandits open fire."

"You're going to have to wait around ten minutes for that," Chronoforce responded. "Model W can only recharge my batteries so fast. Besides, I still have to re-calculate everything now that I know my second equation doesn't work either."

"Very well," Albert decided after a second of consideration, then continued, "Try and form an ice shield around us if you can. I won't risk getting shot while I'm waiting for you to recharge if I can help it."

"Sorry, not enough moisture this far up in the atmosphere for that," Chronoforce replied. "I might be able to fire off an Ice Needle or two, but that probably won't be enough to bring even one of these fighters down."

"In that case, I suppose I'll just have to test my luck out in the open," Albert sighed. "Perhaps we—" He was interrupted by the sound of a roughly human-size object finishing its teleport behind him, near the forward end of the airship's deck. Turning around to investigate, he found himself staring at a menacing humanoid figure clad in purple and silver armor, the figure of a Reploid whom he unfortunately recognized. The Reploid, Albert observed, was staring right back at him, an expression halfway between confusion and hatred on his face.

"Prometheus," Albert pronounced. "What business do you have here? Seeking a Biometal, or just pursuing a cargo airship with an army of Raiders for your own amusement?"

"I thought I recognized you, Albert," Prometheus shot back. "Loving the new haircut, by the way. Almost makes me jealous that I can't pull it off too." He idly fingered the cyan cape emerging from the back of his helmet, which was formed out of what was left of his hair after his permanent Megamerge. "As for the Raiders, make no mistake, I'm not in league with them. Just perpetuating that little Game of Destiny you always nag me about. You do still want it to continue, don't you? It's been so long since you last checked up on me, I'm not really sure what my job is anymore."

"So, you've detected a Biometal here, have you?" Albert responded. "Intriguing. I was under the impression that Slither Inc. was in possession of them all by now, but I suppose Model X or Z could have managed to escape their notice."

Prometheus cackled. "You really have been busy with your Sage Trinity duties, haven't you, old man? Serpent's been dead for years, and he took his company with him. Since then, we haven't been able to hold on to any of the Biometals, let alone all of them. Some rogue Chosen Ones managed to nab the Guardian Biometals from everyone's favorite child prodigy a couple of weeks ago, but that's about it."

"Everyone's favorite—?" Once again, Albert's musings were interrupted, this time by the sound of a massive explosion from near the airship's aft end, which was immediately followed by the _crash_ of metal deflecting off the side of the hull and the _thump_ of a smaller object impacting the deck. Albert whirled around to face the source of the noise, and Chronoforce shifted himself as best he could with his fins to get a better look.

"Another inconvenience rears its ugly head," Albert groaned as he examined the object, now revealed to be a lean, feminine humanoid with long, messy silver hair and sarcastically gleaming green eyes. Judging by her clothes and the lack of a red triangle on her forehead, she wasn't a Raider, nor was she a Reploid. Of course, Albert didn't have to figure this out on his own, as he was familiar with her as well, although not exactly pleased to see her.

"I've landed! Okay, I guess the booty is inside," the girl said, presumably to a communicator somewhere on her body. Shifting her gaze down the airship's deck, she noticed the bizarre trio of Albert, Prometheus, and Chronoforce observing her from near the entrance to the cargo bay. She had just begun to run over to the entrance when Prometheus raised his hand and a strange metal rod appeared in it. Flicking a switch on the rod, he brought his trademark weapon to life as the rectangular emitter on one end formed a scythe-like blade of cyan energy. He brandished the deadly slicing tool menacingly, warning the girl not to come any closer.

"It seems the Biometal has attracted a bug," Prometheus taunted. "Shoo, pest! This is none of your business."

"Hey, what did you just call me?!" the girl responded angrily. "You've got some nerve, talking to me like that." Her hand moved to the holster mounted on her hip, which contained a modified buster pistol. "None of you three look like Hunters… Are you after the Biometal too?"

"It's been a while, Ashe," Albert spoke up, "or at least a while since I've last seen you. You most likely can't remember encountering me at all."

"How do you know my name?!" Ashe demanded as she glared at Albert. "Wait… Your voice sounds familiar. Master Albert, of the Sage Trinity? If it is you, you look a heck of a lot taller when you're giving speeches."

"That's a good question, actually," Chronoforce remarked to Albert. "Who is this Ashe girl, and how do you know her without her knowing you?"

"Haven't we been over this?" Albert questioned rhetorically. "If Grey was to malfunction or be destroyed, she—" Albert was cut off yet again by a noise from near the back of the airship—three more human-size _thumps_, this time accompanied by the appearance of three orange-armored Hunters on the deck. They all immediately ran over and took positions behind Ashe, busters in hand.

"Why does this keep happening to me?" Albert moaned to himself.

"Who're all these clowns?" a Hunter with a face mask and reddish eyes asked Ashe.

"Doesn't matter," another Hunter with a blue visor interjected. "We made it to the airship, so let's join the party!"

"Who's that guy with the scythe?" wondered a third Hunter with a red visor. "A Hunter? A Maverick?"

"Everyone be careful!" Ashe warned her squadmates. "These guys don't look like just anybody."

"How irritating you all are," Prometheus sighed. "Alright, I'm officially fed up with this. Prepare to draw your last breaths!" Leaping backward into the air, he swung his scythe in a wide arc at the peak of his ascent, creating an energy shockwave that blasted a massive hole in the deck of the airship. An aura of purple flames enclosed Prometheus' hand immediately after he landed, from which he began to launch searing hot spheres of fire down into the crater. After a mere few seconds of bombardment, Albert heard a massive explosion from somewhere in the lower decks, which was soon accompanied by the ship abruptly beginning to tilt forward and go into a steep descent. His demolition finished, Prometheus enveloped himself in blazing white energy and teleported off of the deck into the vast dome of the sky.

"T-The airship's crashing!" Ashe exclaimed. "He must have hit something important down there!"

"Chronoforce," Albert commanded, "activate the Time Bomb as soon as possible. Our brief period of relative safety is coming to an end."

"Only a few more minutes," Chronoforce reassured. "I've got the new equation ready, so we should be out of here in no time once I'm finished charging."

"That isn't good enough," Albert said through gritted teeth, "seeing as we have at most ninety seconds before impact with the ground. Is there anything else here that you can draw power from?" As he spoke, an undertone of panic became more and more apparent in his voice.

"I could siphon energy from the Biometal the ship is carrying," Chronoforce considered, "if you could bring it up and wire it to my reactor."

"As much as I hate to admit it, we'd never be able to find it in time," Albert pointed out, struggling to retain his normally calm demeanor.

"Hold on a sec," the red-visored Hunter interrupted. "Time Bomb? Equation? Siphoning energy from the Biometal? What in the heck do you two think you're doing?" He and the other Hunters raised their busters.

"In that case," Chronoforce answered Albert, "I'll have to take more… desperate measures." Drawing water vapor from the conveniently thick clouds now surrounding the airship, Chronoforce materialized an Ice Needle and sent it slicing through the air. It pierced Ashe in the chest, causing her to crumple to the deck.

"You imbecile!" Albert shrieked with rage. "She was my second contingency plan!"

"Doesn't matter if you have a contingency plan if there's no _you_," Chronoforce retorted. "Grab her and bring her over here. I'll drain the electricity from her mechanical implants."

"Ashe!" cried the Hunter with the face mask. "You're going to pay for this! Open fire, men!" He and his squadmates began blasting away at Albert and Chronoforce, forcing the former to dive behind the latter for cover as the shots deflected off of his near-impenetrable hull.

"Idiots," Albert seethed. "If you don't stop and think for even a second, none of us are getting out of this alive!" His attempts at persuading the revenge-crazy Hunters were unnecessary, however, as three more well-placed Ice Needles from Chronoforce sent their weapons spinning out of their hands and into the crevice in the middle of the deck. Seizing the opportunity, Albert dashed out from behind Chronoforce and clasped the dying Ashe's hand in his, yanking her over to where Chronoforce lay. Immediately, the shutter on the dorsal side of Chronoforce's hull opened up and two tentacle-like violet wires shot out, one of which inserted itself into the wound in Ashe's chest and the other into a socket on the underside of her ear implant. The circuit was closed in milliseconds, allowing Chronoforce to begin extracting Ashe's energy through the now-glowing wires.

"Hurry, Chronoforce!" Albert practically screeched with panic. "At this rate, I'll be nothing but a smear on the dirt in thirty seconds!"

"Calm down! I'm working as fast as I can," Chronoforce shot back. "If I can keep up this rate of energy drainage, we should be able to teleport ourselves out with time to sp—" He was interrupted by the blue-visored Hunter running up and tearing first one, then the other of his wires from Ashe's body and screaming "Get those things out of her!" Chronoforce retaliated with yet another Ice Needle, but the Hunter sidestepped it.

_If this is how it ends_, Albert mused, _I must say it isn't the death I had hoped for. Done in by an ignorant meathead with a backwards excuse for a sense of justice_. He glanced down along the deck towards the rapidly approaching surface of the planet, a mere twenty seconds from impact. _If only Model W wasn't programmed to recognize my dummy body as "me" at this point in time. Otherwise, I could effortlessly teleport out of here, or escape with one of my A-Trans forms. Wait… A-Trans… The DNA files stored on Model W may not be accessible right now, but the ability to copy DNA is integrated into my body itself. With the correct transformation, I may be able to survive the crash, albeit with serious injuries… but who's going to repair me before I die from my wounds if I'm unrecognizable?_ Albert let out a frustrated noise halfway between a scream and a growl, attracting Chronoforce's attention.

"I know this is traumatic for you and all," Chronoforce pointed out, "but is this how you're going to spend the last ten seconds of your life? Standing in place and grunting like an ape?"

Albert, lost in frantic thought, didn't even bother to scold the Pseudoroid. _Chronoforce's form won't do me any good, seeing as he has a massive weakpoint on the side that's going to hit the ground first… If I transform into a Hunter, they'll see through my disguise if the original survives and they find them before they find me… So that leaves…_ Out of complete and utter desperation, Albert lunged for Ashe's unconscious form, his fingers electrified with the trademark cyan aura of all A-Trans-equipped devices. Grasping her leg harder than anything he had grasped in his centuries-long life (it felt that way, at least), Albert initiated the DNA file transfer the instant he made contact. The aura surrounding his hands began to spread.

"Albert, what are you doing?" Chronoforce interrogated, completely bewildered at Albert's actions. "We have five seconds until impact! Has fear of the end finally snapped you?"

Once again, Albert paid no attention. Even as every instinct he possessed told him his end was unavoidably imminent, he continued the absorption of Ashe's DNA by his own A-Trans system, infusing it into every cell and transistor in his rapidly reconfiguring body. _How ironic that moments before my almost certain demise, my youth should finally return to me… or rather, someone else's youth._ Albert's final sensations were of his form becoming leaner and more muscular than it had been in centuries, of his face taking on an optimistic and reckless quality that conflicted intensely with all that he believed himself to be, of his limbs growing light and his chest heavy… and of a single flash of sound, heat, pressure, and pain followed by the blackness of unconsciousness… forever?


	5. Last Life to Lose

Master Albert, the greatest scientist in the entire world, woke up after his death. Again.

_What? I'm still alive? Impossible… or nearly so, anyway. And yet something feels off, although I can't put my finger on it._ The surface he was lying on resembled a mattress in texture, and he felt no wind and heard no sound, so he intuitively concluded that he was indoors. Opening his eyes, he found himself staring up at a mostly featureless grayish metal ceiling broken up by radiators and a skylight in the center. In the corner of his eye, he noticed a robotic arm-like device with four medium blue emitters embedded in one end. He sat up… and immediately cried out with shock, the sound of his voice only adding to the confusion he felt.

_My voice… my body… I'm a female?!_ And then he remembered, the torrent of sensations rushing in from his memory overwhelming him almost as much as the sight of his temporary new form had. Placing his hand over his chest, he exhaled heavily with relief that the world had not gone mad, although his heart was still pounding from the adrenaline rush. He had barely enough time to emotionally recover, however, before an automatic door on the wall he was now facing opened and a humanoid figure stepped in. It was one of the Hunters he had encountered on the airship, Albert observed, the one with the red eyes and the face mask.

"Hey, you're awake," he said. "These Hunters… they helped you."

_Not the most articulate guy in the world, is he?_ Albert mentally commented. _At least that partially explains why I'm not rotting in the middle of an impact crater right now, though._

"It's amazing how you survived all of that," the Hunter continued. "You must be pretty tough to get stabbed through the chest with an icicle, caught in the middle of an airship crash, and live to tell the tale."

"Speaking of the crash…" Albert replied in Ashe's high-pitched tone, "whatever happened to that man and the Mutos Reploid? Have you found either of them yet?"

"Funny you'd ask about it," the Hunter answered, "but no. We haven't even found their remains. Probably didn't survive, though, if we haven't seen them at all."

_If Chronoforce was destroyed,_ Albert considered, _it's doubtful that Model W will resurrect him. This timeline likely has a Chronoforce as well, as everything seems to have somehow proceeded the same as before, and Model W won't regenerate something it still has contact with at least one of._

"Where am I?" Albert questioned further. "What happened to the Biometal the airship was carrying?"

"You mean our 'booty', as you like to say?" the Hunter joked. "We recovered the whole container and brought it here! They're planning to take it by train to Legion HQ. As for where you are, you're in Hunters' Camp. It's, well, a hunters' camp near the airship crash site."

"Well," Albert thought out loud, "it's good to know that the… booty… is safe and sound. Thanks for helping save my life and all"—_that felt strange coming out_—"but I should probably be going now." _This timeline's version of me must still have Model W in secure mode, since I can't establish a connection with it. I need to get back in control as soon as possible—manually, if necessary._

"What are you going to do?" the Hunter asked. "Follow the train to Legion? You won't get your cut of the pay if you don't show up there, you know." He paused for a second, and then continued, "Oh! I just remembered. Something must've happened to your Hunter's License in the crash, since we couldn't find it on you. They probably won't let you on the train of you don't have a License. There's a transerver one building over where you can get a new one. Follow me!" He marched out of the door.

"I think I can find 'one building over' by myself, thanks," Albert grumbled to himself. _I suppose I'll have to get a License if I want to get back to Legion before I betray the other Sage Trinity members and get myself banned from their computer systems. In the meantime, it appears I must remain in Ashe's form to avoid detection by these Hunters._ He swung his legs over the edge of the bed on which he was sitting and climbed down, following the masked Hunter out of the building.

Stepping out into the sunlight, Albert found himself in a large metal-and-concrete courtyard with a fence surrounding it on two opposing sides. On the other two were towering concrete walls with one door embedded in each. Scattered around the courtyard were four gray metal buildings of exactly equal size and shape, one of which he had just emerged from. Directly to his left was a building marked _d01-04_, which Albert assumed was the transerver station. He walked over to it and allowed the automatic door to slide open.

The interior of d01-04 closely resembled that of d01-03, the building Albert woke up in, except for the presence of two rectangular display screens on the walls and a compact yellow transerver near the back. The masked Hunter was standing by the transerver, waiting for Albert to come over, which he did. Without waiting for instructions, Albert stepped onto the transerver pad and activated it, causing the transerver to play a jingle and display the message "You got a **Hunter's License**!" on the greenish control panel. _You'd think they'd have used a more descriptive messaging system,_ Albert remarked. _Do people just not read anymore?_ He deactivated the transerver.

"The guys who recovered the Biometal are probably at the station getting the train ready," the Hunter informed Albert. "Be sure to let me know how it goes, okay?"

"Don't worry, I will," Albert replied dismissively. _Will abandon this timeline the first chance I get, at least._

"You're not very enthusiastic about this whole thing, are you?" the Hunter commented. "Must have been really shaken up by that airship crash."

"Oh, I'm perfectly enthusiastic," Albert contradicted, attempting to force a smile. "I just… don't want to waste your time, that's all." _I'm not very good with people, am I? Oh, well. At least looking upbeat is easier on this face._

"Whatever you say," the Hunter responded. "Anyway, you can get to the train station by exiting the camp through the door on the left and going straight from there. Good luck!" Once again, he strode out of the door, leaving Albert to ponder his situation.

_I can't say it's rational to believe in supernatural influence on luck,_ Albert considered, _but sometimes it feels like the world just enjoys spitting in my face._ He stepped off of the transerver pad and was marching towards the door when he felt something slap him on the back of the neck. He turned sharply around to investigate, only to feel it again in the same spot. Realizing that it was the long tail of silver hair extending from the back of his head, Albert groaned with irritation and tied it into a tight bun. _See what I mean?_ he said to himself as he resumed his path out of the building.

* * *

The train station, Albert observed, was exceptionally dull in appearance, a stark contrast to the overgrown amalgamation of forest and industrial complex just outside. It was essentially a single gray metal hallway, broken up occasionally by a window or a door or a hint of purple coloring on the walls. At the end of the hallway, which Albert was now approaching, was a single track beside a set of windows overlooking the barren landscape beyond. A line of orange-and-gray flatbed train cars was occupying the track, with a single Hunter waiting at the back of the nearest car. Albert strode up to the Hunter and came to a stop by the last pair of wheels, waiting for the Hunter to acknowledge his presence.

"So, you're Ashe," the Hunter began after a couple of seconds spent regarding Albert. "I've heard about you. You're here to help us, aren't you?"

"Indeed I am," Albert confirmed. "Let me know when we're ready to depart."

"Pretty eager, aren't we?" the Hunter answered. "Haha, it's nice to have a girl around. Anyway, we're ready to leave whenever, so all aboard!"

Albert twitched slightly at the word _girl_, reminded once again of his awkward predicament, but he climbed onto the car with only a moment's hesitation. As he stepped up to the car's bed, he noticed a metal container with details in orange and purple, which was the only object on the bed besides him and the Hunter. _That may very well be the Biometal,_ Albert realized. _Hopefully it won't attract any Mavericks, but that may just be wishful thinking._ Albert's hand moved to the holster on his hip where the replica of Ashe's pistol was held. _How ironic it would be if I was forced to bring this out—the same weapon used to destroy so many of my former minions. At least I'm youthful and agile enough to wield it effectively now. _Almost immediately after Albert took his position beside the Hunter, the train groaned and began to accelerate along the track. The train station was behind them in a matter of seconds as the rocky plains between Hunter's Camp and Legion seemed to stretch farther and farther in every direction.

"You're something else to want to carry on with this mission all by yourself," the Hunter remarked. "Why do you want to be a Hunter so bad?"

"I have my reasons," Albert replied cryptically. "Right now, though, reaching Legion Headquarters itself is my top priority. I have some… business to conduct there."

"I see," the Hunter acknowledged, clearly not seeing anything. He sighed and fell silent for a few seconds. "So… what kind of business?"

"Well, I…" Albert paused to consider his response. "I've heard that there's an issue with Legion's file on me. I don't have any memory of my life before I became a Hunter, and Legion doesn't seem to have a record of it either, so I've decided to investigate myself." _That'll work as a cover-story for now. After all, it is true for all intents and purposes._

"Someone else who doesn't know where they came from…" a childlike voice of indeterminate gender sounded from the metal container. "She's just like me, in a way."

_Biometal Model A?_ Albert considered. _That certainly sounds like its voice, but there's only one way to know for sure without a connection to Model W. _"Did you hear that?" he asked the Hunter. "I could have sworn there was a voice coming from that container just now."

"Hm? You can hear me?" the voice sounded again.

"Nope, didn't hear a thing," the Hunter answered. "Must have just been the—" He was interrupted mid-sentence by a swarm of green-and-gold jet Mechaniloids swooping overhead along the length of the train. As they passed over the car on which Albert and the Hunter were standing, they released cylindrical canisters from their undersides that fell onto the bed of the car and exploded upon impact, rupturing the metallic surface in several spots. Albert dodged to the right to avoid the blast from a canister dropped mere inches from his face. _I'm not exactly happy to see Mavericks now that I'm on the receiving end of their fury, but at least I wasn't the one who was interrupted this time._

"Dammit! I was hoping Mavericks like these wouldn't show up!" the Hunter growled. He took out his buster pistol and began unloading on the Mechaniloids, managing to bring one or two down, but several escaped unharmed and were free to continue the bombardment. Albert, to defend his own life if nothing else, removed his weapon from its holster as well. He didn't get a chance to fire it, however, as the last of the Mavericks were well behind them by the time his finger was on the trigger.

"They're going for the engine!" the Hunter exclaimed. "You wait here!" He dashed off towards the front end of the train. Albert turned to watch him go, but no sooner did he get a good view of the battle ahead than he heard a pair of teleports finishing at the back end of the car. He whipped his head around yet again, only to come face to face with none other than Prometheus.

"You again?" Albert moaned. "I suppose I should have anticipated this, but…"

"This is it…" said Prometheus' companion, a spear-wielding humanoid female in white and turquoise armor. "The Biometal Model A container."

"'Anticipated', huh?" Prometheus taunted. "That's five syllables. Pretty impressive for…" Then a look of understanding dawned on his face. "Albert, you sneaky bastard. I should've known you would pull something like this."

"You mean that girl is…?" Prometheus' companion—Pandora, Albert's second main servant—asked rhetorically.

"That's right, Pandora," Prometheus chuckled. "Our 'father', now that he can't rely on Model W to solve all of his problems, sees fit to parade himself around in the form of a teenage Hunter girl. I'd be deluding myself if I thought this didn't reflect something deeper going on."

"What are you implying?!" Albert spluttered. "Just take the Biometal and leave, will you? It won't even matter who has it once I'm back in control of Model W."

"Oh, no," Prometheus smirked. "We're not passing up this opportunity to dispose of you now that you can't threaten us with deactivation." As he spoke, his grin grew wider and wider as he realized what he and Pandora were now capable of. "No more will we suffer under your iron-fisted rule!" Bringing his energy scythe to life, he slashed it through the air once more. The resulting shockwave caught Albert square in the chest, hurling him back against the Biometal container, which split open from the force of the impact.

"We'll give you exactly the death you deserve!" Prometheus cackled, drunk with power. "The death of a weak—" He swung the scythe again "—pathetic—" and again "—little—" and again "—girl!"

At this point, Albert was crumpled on the bed of the car, too weak to move, let alone fire back. _To think it would come to this… I won't get another chance this time… Ashe's life was my last life to lose…_ He was sure that this was truly the end of his existence when Model A's voice spoke from inside the container once again.

"Hey! Girl! If you don't want to die, do exactly what I tell you!" the Biometal commanded. "We should be able to Megamerge! I'll lend you my—"

_How did it not hear that entire conversation?!_ Albert was stunned, but he wasn't about to pass up this last chance at survival. Cutting off Model A, he finished, "—strength. You're Biometal Model A. You want me to focus and yell "Megamerge!" as loud as I can. Got it."

"How did you know what I was going to say?" Model A questioned. "Well, anyway, hurry up and fuse with me, then! We don't exactly have all day!"

"Very well," Albert responded. _Once Model A has access to my data, it should be fooled by my stronger variety of A-Trans, but we'll have to see._ Standing up as best he could, ignoring the injuries to Ashe's form, he closed his eyes, threw his head back, and screamed,

"Megamerge!"

* * *

**Author's Note:** No, this will not just be ZX Advent with Albert's commentary from here on out. There will be significant deviations, and I may even just skip over the parts that are more or less the same. Let me know what you think.


	6. Chronoforce's Lament

"Alright, I've had about enough," Red declared. "We've found all there is to find in this wreckage, and besides, the heat here is unbearable with all of this armor on. I say we head back to camp."

_ General system efficiency: 21%. Estimated remaining battery life: 13 minutes, 36 seconds. That should be sufficient… barely._

"I guess you're right," Lazarus considered, cleaning a dusting of desert sand off of his visor. "Especially since we're not even getting pai—wait, what's this?" Shifting aside a charred piece of engine turbine, the orange-armored Hunter came face to face with a streamlined, horseshoe crab-like Reploid. Its armor was punctured in several places and two of its six trapezoidal fins were torn off, but its open, shifting eyes revealed that it was still very much functional.

_I see the Hunters have found me. They won't be much help, I can guarantee that._

"Red, c'mere for a second," Lazarus called. His partner jogged over to beside him and peered into the opening in the pile of shattered machine parts, his eyes narrowing with anger behind his crimson visor.

_The feeling is mutual._

"That Mutos Reploid…" Red seethed. "He's the one who nearly killed Ashe." Lazarus nodded in agreement. Speaking directly to the aquatic pseudo-invertebrate, Red continued, "We should just leave you here to rot. It'd be only fair, after all."

"I have no need for your mercy," Chronoforce the Xiphosuroid responded. "In fact, it won't be long before you're begging for mine." The fragmented remains of Chronoforce's ice tail began to spin rapidly, surrounding his body in an aura of grayish-blue energy. Cackling, Chronoforce began to fade from the vision of the two Hunters until he was completely and indisputably gone.

The wreckage collapsed on top of the space that the strange Reploid had occupied, leaving Red and Lazarus bewildered.


End file.
